Bliss, The Ultimate! | Special Meditation Session On the Eve of Mahashivaratri I Session #3103

In the futile pursuit of pleasure, happiness, and meaning, humans have forgotten about something much more valuable that they already have within themselves. Bliss! In this meditation session that was given on 4th March 2019, the eve of ‘Mahashivaratri’, I talk about how to access bliss by deep-diving into the significance of Mahashivaratri. We are going to practice an evergreen meditation technique that may work miraculously. Format: 20 min Talk, 30 min Guided Meditation.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Dhyansi and you are listening to Dhyansi Meditation Podcast.

This meditation session was given on 4th of March 2019 in Basel,

Switzerland.

On the occasion of Mahashivratri,

One of the biggest festivals for meditators,

I discuss the implications of Moon and its effects on the practice of meditation.

Today or let me say this evening is very special.

So I'm glad that you are here and what I'm going to explain to you is requiring a bit of openness,

Is something that is maybe not fitting to the logics of this part of the world.

If they don't say anything to you,

Then just take it as a story.

But if it relates to you,

Then there is a lot of significance to this evening.

This evening happens once in a year.

It's that special.

It's called Mahashivratri in India.

It's celebrated as a festival,

The day is even a holiday because the celebration is so big and it's celebrated in the entire country.

It's right now considered as a part of a religious ceremony,

But actually it has nothing to do with religion.

Mahashivratri is a celebration,

Is a day of recognizing,

Connecting to the higher consciousness.

This is that day,

One day in a year,

Where those who are taking their spiritual practice,

Their meditation practice seriously,

For them it's their day to go all in.

It's that significant.

Let me just give you a brief background and break this down to you.

I can't go into a lot of details because this topic is vast.

It emerges out of thousands of years of wisdom,

Traditions.

But what I can share with you,

Maybe a few glimpses of what could be relatable.

First of all,

The word Mahashivratri can be broken down into three.

Maha means the big.

Shiv is the consciousness,

The Shiva.

Ratri is the night.

Shivratri is that night of Shiva,

Which actually happens every month,

Every 28 days with the lunar cycle.

There is one day which is the 13th night,

One night before the new moon,

Which is tonight,

Is where the energies,

Your internal subtle energies are somewhat different.

The consciousness is somewhat different.

If you're sensitive,

You feel it.

If you're not sensitive,

It doesn't matter.

It's like,

Moon is something which not everybody feels an effect of.

But for those who feel the effect of moon when there is full moon or new moon,

They know what I'm talking about.

Even the word lunatic comes out of the lunar,

Out of the moon,

When because of the moon,

The energies are such that the mind is going totally crazy.

And hence creating lunatics,

Creating mad people.

So there are different implications of moon as an object in our life.

Either we are sensitive to it or not,

That's something else.

So this Shivratri,

Which happens every month,

Is a cycle.

And Mahashivratri is out of these cycles,

The 12th cycle,

Which is happening once in a year.

And this is where the planetary constellations are in such an order that it's for meditators,

One of the best days to meditate.

In India,

There are ceremonies where people will be awake the whole night long.

Not just meditators who would meditate all night long,

But just to sit silently with your backbone straight,

Just to sit,

Remain awake tonight is so much beneficial that I can't even begin to speak about it.

How does this really matter?

How does this really happen?

If you look at our lifestyle,

How it is designed,

We are mainly concerned with two cycles,

Two celestial cycles.

One is the rotation of the earth,

Creating day and night,

Where we have decided now to design our life according to the day and the night,

Where most of us are awake during the day and most of us are asleep during the night.

So our lifestyle is designed according to this rotation of earth,

This one cycle that is happening every 24 hours,

And we adapt our lifestyle according to that.

The second cycle which we are also concerned with is the revolution of earth around the sun,

Which is creating these 365 days,

And we have a calendar to record those 365 days,

And we operate,

We design our lifestyle according to those days,

And we continue like that.

But what about the moon?

Why is this moon there and we are having absolutely not,

Our lifestyle is not designed,

Is not having any correlation to something that is having such an impact on our life.

If you look at the oceans,

The rise of the tide is so significant,

And we just absolutely not think about it,

Why is it happening?

And also our body is two-third water,

It must also impact our body as well,

If it is impacting the oceans.

And that's just one visible correlation,

I don't have proofs,

I don't have data to show you to say this is the proof,

That is the proof,

All I can say is it's all over the wisdom traditions,

All over different cultures,

And also in my personal experience,

I can verify from my personal experience,

From my meditations,

That there is a significant impact of the lunar cycles on how we feel,

How our consciousness is.

Our consciousness is comprising of so many things,

And I'm talking about just the ordinary consciousness,

Meaning not the altered states of consciousness,

Just within our normal set of consciousness,

Sometimes we are more mindful,

We are more awake,

Sometimes we are less mindful,

We are more drowsy,

We are less aware,

Sometimes we are feeling blissful for no reason,

And sometimes we are not feeling so good,

We are feeling depressed.

Sometimes we are very much feeling truthful,

Our perception is sharp enough to see the truth in every situation,

And sometimes we are happy with the illusions,

We want to remain with the illusion of things.

So there are so many variations in our consciousness that we experience all throughout our life,

And we don't know why they are happening,

We just simply live them as they happen to us.

By understanding and by being a bit more sensitive to these cycles,

Like these lunar cycles,

And observing them in your own behavior,

In your own consciousness,

In your own life,

You can design your lifestyle accordingly,

You can react to situations accordingly,

You can even do your decision making accordingly,

Which will allow you to be more in harmony with what's happening outside.

You don't have to be over designing this and going crazy about it,

But just to understand how your own inner energies,

How your own inner consciousness behaves on different days,

Especially for women,

You know how your biology is also having cycles which greatly impact your consciousness,

Which greatly impact many many things of your physiology,

Of your psychology,

And same is with the moon.

So I would want this session to be dedicated to the moon,

To the energy of the moon,

And what it has an impact on us.

One of the concepts which I would also very briefly like to touch upon is the concept of Soma.

With the moon comes the silent blissful nectar that is released out of the pineal gland that is there in all of us,

In our physical body,

And that gland,

That pineal gland has been talked about in thousands of years old wisdom traditions all across different cultures in their own different ways.

Believe it or not,

I'm not here to tell you to believe,

But just as an interesting thought,

If that would be the case,

How much of significance and implication that could have in your life.

What is that pineal gland?

First of all,

It's considered to be in the center,

Behind the center of your forehead.

So if you take a straight line passing through your center of your forehead,

And that straight line,

That horizontal straight line meets the axis of your spine,

And that point of intersection is where the pineal gland is in your head.

And what is considered is that out of this pineal gland,

There is a secretion,

That secretion in Eastern traditions was called as Soma.

When that secretion happens,

It creates blissfulness,

It creates that ecstasy,

That bliss which has been talked about in all the yogic traditions,

In all the wisdom traditions,

In the Western traditions it was called as Khaoma.

So different sounds to the same connotation,

To the same object.

And the origin of this tradition is where it belonged to the meditators,

This belonged to the yogis,

Where those yogis,

Those meditators who would be spending time in deep meditation,

They would be experiencing the secretion of this nectar,

Drip by drip,

Which would create that pleasantness,

That bliss in the consciousness,

And could also take the person or the meditator from the ordinary states of consciousness to higher states of consciousness.

And this was another purpose why there was so much emphasis and practices in the entire art and sciences developed to trigger how we could tap into this internal alchemy that we all contain.

Even to that extent that this internal alchemy was replicated in what could be found in plants as psychedelics and there has been a lot of research done on the psychedelics where different molecules are being tested as replicating the experience of Soma,

The experience of this blissfulness.

We don't need to go into those altered states of consciousness and the psychedelic experiences that come along with those altered states.

But just for the sake of today's meditation,

For the special evening,

For the special night that we have here for meditation today,

I thought of sharing the background of Soma with you,

The energy of the moon with you,

Because what we are going to do as meditation,

A practice,

Is to somewhat,

Somewhat stimulate that energy,

Somewhat bring that coolness,

That blissfulness of the moon energy of Soma into our lives.

And if none of that makes sense,

If none of that is relatable,

Just remaining in silence,

Just remaining in awareness is enough.

With that,

Let me very briefly tell you how we are going to do this meditation.

We're going to do this in three different parts.

The first two parts are pranayama.

This pranayama is done to create a balance using our breath.

I'm sure you must have heard this word pranayama.

What we're going to do today is called kumbhaka pranayama,

Where we would practice a bit of breath retention in order to create harmony,

In order to create a balance in our breath.

Once you have done that,

And then we will move on to where we will concentrate on the Soma center,

Behind our third eye center,

Behind our Agnya chakra.

So for the pranayama,

You're going to hold your breath at two different points.

When you breathe in and breathe out,

There are two points where your breath takes a natural stop.

The first point is when you exhale and after the exhalation,

There is a point where your breath stops.

And we are going to exaggerate that stop by holding our breath for five counts.

Not more,

Not less,

Not trying to stress the body,

Not trying to force the body,

Not trying to force anything in our system,

But just very relaxly maintain a pause after the exhalation,

After the breath has left your body,

This outside pause of your exhalation for five seconds or five counts.

Then you're going to breathe in.

And when you're going to breathe in,

There is another pause,

Which is happening behind your belly,

When the breath is going and touching the region behind your belly,

That's the second stop where you're going to again hold your breath for five seconds or five counts,

Whichever you prefer.

And we're going to repeat these two pauses for at least 10 to 12 counts.

10 to 12 times we will do this entire cycle.

We will do this one or two cycles together with me.

And then I'll let you do this at your own pace for a few minutes until you are fully established in your own pace for this cycle and allow yourself to settle your body,

Your mind to settle as you practice this pranayama.

Once we are done with this pranayama,

The next phase of the meditation is we're going to concentrate on,

We're going to bring all of our awareness on this Soma chakra,

Which I was mentioning earlier.

It's behind your eyebrow center at the intersection of this horizontal line that would go through your third eye center and the access of your spine.

You can,

If it's difficult for you to keep your awareness there,

Just keep your awareness in your head region.

If possible,

Try to make it specific to the Soma center,

Which is the pineal gland and keep your awareness there.

Try to softly keep your awareness and attention throughout the meditation over there.

When you do that,

Add a short visualization to it.

I will guide you through these throughout the meditation as well.

The visualization would be as if there is a nectar,

A liquid flowing very gently,

Very softly down that center,

Flowing down above your nasal cavity and then flowing down to your throat and then eventually down to your heart.

Because when this nectar comes down to your heart,

It brings that immense peace,

That inner peace,

That bliss down to your heart and throughout your body,

Throughout your psychology,

All your energies are at rest when that happens.

It's a wonderful meditation if you allow this visualization to happen,

If you allow this meditation and it's,

It's,

Let's say,

It's significance to happen,

You can experience the peace,

The bliss in your ordinary states of consciousness without having to do anything extraordinary.

With that,

I would love like you to close your eyes and take a sitting posture which is naturally comfortable to you.

Allow your body to settle in a posture that is comfortable to you.

As you keep your spine erect,

Your head straight,

Your shoulders down.

Your face relaxed.

Take a nice deep breath in,

Inhale from the nose and exhale from the nose.

Another deep breath in and out.

And start with the pranayama.

Inhale,

Hold your breath for five counts and exhale.

Again,

Hold your breath for five counts.

Inhale.

Exhale,

Hold.

Exhale.

And hold.

And repeat this cycle at your own pace,

10 to 12 times.

As you hold your breath,

Bring your awareness to the pause.

Don't force yourself.

Do this rhythmically as it is comfortable to your own pace.

With every pause,

Your body settles,

Your mind settles.

Seven four.

Keep your awareness in the pause.

The pause after the exhalation and the pause before.

The pause after the exhalation and the pause before.

Now keep on breathing normally without holding your breath.

Allow your breath to settle.

Find its natural rhythm.

Keep your awareness still on the pause in your natural rhythm of your breath.

Now take your awareness to the soma center.

The region in your head behind the center point on your forehead.

Draw all your awareness and take it towards this soma center.

Allow your awareness to settle in your head region.

While you breathe in and breathe out very normally as you always do.

Keep a gentle focus,

Your awareness behind your forehead.

Now your focus to stabilize.

To grow at the soma center.

As you know that,

Keep your face relaxed,

Eyes relaxed,

And not forcing anything in your body.

As your awareness settles on the soma center,

Visualize as if you are in the center.

As if there is a nectar dripping from the center,

Drop by drop.

This sweet nectar is flowing down from your soma center.

Reaching your upper nasal cavity.

Flowing downwards to your throat.

Your heart.

Just remain in this visualization that this sweet nectar is flowing down from your soma center.

From your head down to your throat.

And down to your heart.

Now bring your awareness down to your heart region.

And feel the peace that is arising out of your heart region.

Remain aware of your heart region.

Remain silent.

And aware of your heart region.

And aware of your heart region.

And aware of your heart region.

Remain absolutely still.

Silent.

And aware.

Take your focus away from your heart region.

For the next minutes,

Simply remain aware and silent.

And aware.

Aware of nothing in particular and everything.

Your body is silent.

Your mind is silent.

Stay like this.

Take your focus away from your heart region.

Remain absolutely still,

Silent and aware.

Bring your awareness back to your breath.

Notice the silent flow of your breath.

Notice the sensations in your body.

Your body.

Your mind.

And very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes or remain seated with your eyes closed.

You may move your body now or remain still for another couple of minutes.

Take the next couple of minutes to reflect what happened,

What experiences you had,

How you felt during the meditation,

How you are feeling right now.

Give yourself a couple of minutes to reflect.

Let's take a few minutes to reflect.

Let's take a few more minutes to reflect.

Now I would like to open this session for you to have this time,

If you have any questions,

If you have any doubts,

Any experiences to share,

Anything that comes up to your mind before you leave this session,

Before you leave this room.

Yes.

No.

It should be more subtle.

If you force yourself and if you hold your breath,

I would not recommend you to do that,

Because then you would build a wrong practice.

When you practice this Kumbh Kaur,

This breath retention,

It should ideally happen naturally,

That your breath,

When you are coming to this pause,

This pause is increasing over time.

But just to exaggerate that,

To emphasize that,

To practice that,

We create this pause intentionally.

Try to keep it as subtle,

As effortless as possible.

If you hold and lock yourself,

That would not be the best way to do this.

But thanks for asking.

Anyone else?

Any experiences to share?

I think it's hot here in this room.

Anyone else?

Did you hear about this topic of Soma and lunar cycles ever before?

Anyone would like to share?

You were nodding your head.

Did you hear?

I didn't know about the new moon as well as anything else.

How do you experience this in your own life?

In my environment,

People were a bit autochoist in my opinion,

But a bit restrictive and they feel pressure again.

Kind of energy that somehow disturbed them.

It's something again,

If you are sensitive to it,

You would feel it.

If not,

It would not matter and you would find this all just theories.

If there is nothing more to share,

I would like to close the session by having two announcements.

One is next Monday we would not have the session.

There is fastnights,

So I hope none of you would be here for meditation.

And the second announcement is I am thankful that you are all kind enough to donate to keep these sessions alive.

We have been now successfully running this for more than a year purely on donation.

And this is something which I wish to continue in the coming year as well.

But the collections that we have are not enough.

Each of these sessions are pretty expensive for us.

So in order to keep this alive,

In order to keep this running for years to come,

We would put a small fee on each of these sessions.

It would not break or make things for anybody.

So I hope all of you would be appreciating that.

And if this would hold you back from coming here for the sessions,

Write to me and we will find a way.

Thanks a lot for joining me in this meditation session.

I wish you a lovely week ahead.

Namaste.

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